Scammer alert.

[Ryou8980]

I k ow this is not exactly reef talk but Judy wanted to give a heads up. Talk to member Livingcorals about buying a hydra 52. Paypaled her said should be shipped at most 2 days been almost a week and light still hasn't arrived.Even USPS even said at most instate ground shipping max 1 to 2 business days. Texted her on mr. Emailed her even tried getting refund on paypal. Cant refund. Just wanted to let you guys know. Just a student and barely have enough money to keep in the hobby and end up losing a good amount to someone like this Good luck hopefully nobody scams u on mr. And happy reefing my friends.

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[rcdude1990]

Big think I learned is to never just PayPal directly.... and if you do you make sure it's for like merchandise and not as a family type transfer.

Stay away from PayPal and western union. The process with PayPal is very long, however if you notify PayPal they will start a claim and start the process of contacting the person.
Not sure if you sent money as if its family though.... if you did I hate to say it but its gonna be difficult to get back.

I normally tell the seller to make a Ebay listing, Ebay and PayPal work hand in hand and if nothing is shipped it's a easy refund.

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[Ryou8980]

Big think I learned is to never just PayPal directly.... and if you do you make sure it's for like merchandise and not as a family type transfer.

Stay away from PayPal and western union. The process with PayPal is very long, however if you notify PayPal they will start a claim and start the process of contacting the person.
Not sure if you sent money as if its family though.... if you did I hate to say it but its gonna be difficult to get back.

I normally tell the seller to make a Ebay listing, Ebay and PayPal work hand in hand and if nothing is shipped it's a easy refund.

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Yea. ik I messed up lol.

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[Donewiththisplace]

A search of the name on here shows 2 other instances of the same shitty behavior. People paid and got scammed out of merchandise.

I find it hard to believe there is no recourse through PayPal? No buyer protection?

Also, maybe one of the mods can chime in here...but anything that can be done to address this persons account?

Sorry to hear that u have to deal with this kind of bs...if it means anything its not very typical of the membership on this site to be malicious. The vast majority are good, honest people and willing to help a fellow reefer.

I got a light I don't use anymore. It's a T5 and if u can find new bulbs for it your welcome to it. U just gotta come get it. Pm me if your interested.

 

[bimmer01]

I always pay 3% of paypal fees (Non family/friends method) to cover my a$$ for transactions just like this. At least you can open up a discuss with Paypal and have them FREEZE the $$. Even tho Paypal will take up to 2-4 weeks, the seller will not run away with your funds.

 

[pecan2phat]

You would never receive family and friends payment from me unless I actually know you. R2R has a good policy, you want the 3%, add it to your listing price.

 

[reefiness]

This is very unfortunate, sorry to hear. I am guilty of sometimes requesting as a friends and family paypal payment because most of the time here on a local site I am expecting a local deal with a cash payment vs a more national site like R2R where I expect to get someone from out of state buying which I would know requires shipping and paypal.

While friends and family is not very safe, if you are going to use it, look into the reviews and reputation of the person selling to you. If you had done a quick search on the forum you would see that the user Livingreefs has only ever had 2 posts since 2014 when they joined the forum and they have a -1 reefer rating from someone in 2014 saying it was a paypal scam.

Also another smart thing when using paypal friends and family, you can offer to pay a deposit up front with the regular means of paypal with the fee then when you guys meet up face to face you can easily pay the rest with friends and family when you have the item(s) you are buying in hand.

 

[Alfredo De La Fe]

The ONLY time I will do a friends and family payment with someone I do not know is if I am picking the item up and will ONLY send it once the item is in my hands.

 

[lovefish77]

Seems i got scammed by the same person

 

[duke62]

Even if you don?t use friends and family and use the business PayPal if the seller receives the money and puts it in his or her bank account you lose the money. You need the seller whether it?s a private guy or a business fill out a invoice to cover you